Untitled…When It BANGS, it BANGS!

“I got a big house in the mountains, let’s go. And I even got a stripper pole!” – R. Kelly (Exit)

Despite two cuts titled “Crazy Night” & “Supaman High” that would have suited better to not appear on the album, when Untitled bangs, it bangs brilliantly! R. Kelly’s ninth studio solo project, Untitled,reaffirms and again establishes that within the realm of contemporary R&B, R. Kelly is top chef and cooks up the best dishes music fans crave and implore. The second song “Exit” is a fascinating arrangement and melodious feast, likened to anything I’ve ever heard and one of the most creative songs I’ve heard in years. The next song “Echo” orchestrates like a scene from a movie, that climaxes when the featured female star yodels to R. Kelly’s “echoes”. The song is masterfully crafted with the right dose of humorous sexuendo and musical impressiveness. The album then moves on to signature “raunch” with the next two tracks titled fittingly, “Bangin’ the Headboard” and “Go Low”, with the latter having been leaked from the 12 Play: 4th Quarter album (canceled) last year.

Kelly continues to slick the pavement, and smooth the edges with “Whole Lotta Kisses”, then lets new comers like Trey Songz & Chris Brown know that “Elephants kill flies” on “Like I Do”.

After “screwin” with Keri Hilson on “Number One”, “Kells” tells us he’s in love with a DJ with “I Love the DJ”, a Europop crossover tune sure to increase Kelly’s listeners. Kelly now ventures into 70’s style disco funk, with the salaciously delightful toe-tapping “Be My #2″, another lyrically playful and humorous “two-stepper” that references MJ with the line “But that don’t mean you still don’t rock my world”. Next is “Text Me”, a hip play on today’s virtual foreplay that is vintage R. Kelly. “Elsewhere” isn’t necessarily a bad song, but one I feel he overcooked and overworked (no pun intended), and may have sounded better with someone else singing it.

The last song “Pregnant” is significant not just for its appearances, but for its connection to Quincy Jones’ smash hit “The Secret Garden”, released in 1990 off of Jones’ Back on the Block album, and features Barry White. Could R. Kelly be suggesting that he is today’s Barry White of R&B? For much of the 1970s and 80s (and even 90s), Barry White dominated R&B. While for the most of the 90s and the last decade, the same can said about Robert Kelly. Quincy Jones broke new grounds in 1990 by making a song that suggestively speaks about a man wanting to have sex with a woman.

Tell me your secret
I don’t just want to know about any secret of yours…
Because tonight I want you to learn all about the Secrets
In your garden

Intro to “The Secret Garden”

Today, R. Kelly goes further by stating it plainly.

Girl you make me wanna get you pregnant,
Girl you make me wanna get you pregnant,
Lay your body down and get you pregnant,
Knock you up, pregnant, Knock you up

Intro to “Pregnant”

Today’s R&B artists continue to push boundaries the best way they know how to…by being more explicit.